Conventionally, some open showcases of this kind are designed to set a front glass upright at the top of the front wall of the heat insulating wall as described in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 11-262432, for example. This type of open showcase is provided with a step section at the back of the top surface of the front wall of the heat insulating wall so that the front glass can be set upright at the step section. A handrail is mounted on the top end on the front wall of the heat insulating wall located at the front of the front glass.
In this case, the rear end of the handrail top is bent along the front end of the step, and win the condition where the front glass is mounted, the back of the handrail inserted along the front end of the step is housed in the step section together with the front glass. In the condition where the front glass is not set upright, on the other hand, a fixed plate having a rectangular cover section at the top thereof is used for closing the step section without a front glass. Thus, the back of the handrail inserted along the front edge of the step section is housed in the step section together with the cover section.
In this case, in the condition where the front glass is not set upright, the top of the handrail is located higher than the cover section of the fixed plate and constitutes the topmost surface at the top end on the front wall of the heat insulating wall. Therefore, if the handrail is constituted by a steel plate material finished with painting, contact between the painted surface and goods causes several small flaws while the goods are placed in and removed from the showcase and the painting on the surface may peel off. When used for a long time, the top of the handrail has several fine splits resulting from small flaws. This is not preferable for use and from the aesthetic viewpoint.
Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the conventional technical problems, and it is an object of the invention to provide an open showcase having a removable front glass at the top of the front wall of the heat insulating wall and an improved appearance of the top surface of the front wall of the heat insulating wall even in case a front glass is not set.